Artist and art historian; collaborator with Joseph Archer Crowe on the first modern history of art to be written in English. Cavalcaselle studied studio painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. He was born in Legnago, Milan, Italy, in the Verona vicinity. When his interests changed to art history, he moved to Milan and Florence to study renaissance art. In 1847 he met Joseph Archer Crowe, a British art historian in Italy. The following year, Cavalcaselle joined in the 1848 revolutions sweeping Europe.